LWCCN is excited to be a part of the Christian Climate Observers Program (CCOP) at the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 29) in Baku, Azerbaijan, November 10-23rd.

CCOP is training the next generation of UN climate observers from a Christian and missional perspective before and during the conference. Participants will share CCOP credentials and gain access to the COP 29 conference grounds where you will be able to attend meetings, briefings, workshops and any events open to those with official observer status. 

Learn more and apply by 23 July 2024

Dates: Choose one; same program:

    Nov. 10-17 (or)                                  

    Nov. 15-23   

Location: Baku, Azerbaijan

Application deadline: July 23, 2024

Room & Board: lodging and breakfast provided at CCOP Base Camp, site to be announced.

Cost: $850 USD; participants are responsible for their own roundtrip travel. We have some scholarships available for those who require financial assistance to attend, particularly students and those from the Global South. We are still working to make the fee lower than the above-mentioned figure as much as possible, through our ongoing efforts of lodging selection and fundraising. We will announce the actual amount of the fee at the final stage of the application process when you confirm your participation at CCOP-2024, sometime in mid to late September.

Do these questions pique your curiosity?

The A Rocha community in Singapore is delighted to host ‘Missional Discipleship and Sustainability’, a day conference in Singapore, alongside the support of Biblical Graduate School of Theology, Fellowship of Evangelical Students and Creation Care Singapore.

There, they hope to explore these questions and much more alongside A Rocha International leaders and local experts, speaking from the fields of theology, finance, science, and conservation.

If you happen to be in Singapore on the 11^th of May, you know what to do – join us for the conversation, happening at Katong Presbyterian Church! Find out more details here. 

On that note, do check out a prior work by the A Rocha community in Singapore—God’s Gardeners: Creation Care Stories from Singapore and Malaysia.

The Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin (a partner of LWCCN) is presenting a major online summit, Resilience in the Anthropocene (RITA), on August 8-10. This is free and will bring together researchers, academics, experts from communities most impacted by environmental devastation and climate change, clinical and counselling psychology practitioners, and contemplative leaders to discuss eco-anxiety and climate distress within a framework of inner, community, and planetary resilience. Though not from a Christian perspective, I think the material could be incredibly useful for all of us working with Christians and churches. Here are a few major themes to be covered:

Dimensions of Emotional Distress: Understanding the psychological and emotional impacts of the environmental and climate crises through an intersectional and justice lens.

Exploration of Coping Mechanisms: Learning from contemplative practices, clinical and counselling psychology, nature-based and Indigenous wisdom traditions to cope and even thrive in uncertain times.

A Framework of Resilience: Collaboratively designing a new framework of inner, community, and planetary resilience that sustains us all.

Free registration link is here!

In late March 2023, a team of WEA colleagues from the WEA Sustainability Center in Bonn and the WEA UN Liaison Office in New York participated in the UN Water Conference at the UN headquarters in New York to monitor its debates and decisions for the global evangelical community. On Friday, March 24, the conference came to a successful conclusion, even though the commitments and decisions could have been more ambitious and stronger in light of the global water and sanitation crisis. The most important result is the Water Action Agenda, for whose implementation voluntary commitments were registered by conference participants. At the end of the UN 2023 Water Conference, the total number of commitments was 708 and according to Csaba Kőrösi, President of the UN General Assembly, financial pledges made equal USD 300 billion. Another joyful outcome of the conference is the announcement that the role of a UN Special Envoy for Water will be established for the first time.

The WEA team has published daily update articles from New York (follow the links): Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Special article on the WEA’s side event during the UN Water Conference.

We are glad to share an invitation to the Nepal Creation Care National Conference:

Exploring God’s mandate to Care for His Creation

which will be held from 24^th to 26^th April 2023 at Hotel Hann Kook Inn, Bal Kumari, Lalitpur.

This marks the return of the national creation care conference in Nepal, which was last held in 2017, and further builds on the 2016 Lausanne/WEA South Asia conference.

The conference welcomes church leaders and lay people, educators, and practitioners, whether individuals or development NGOs. Together, we’ll explore the biblical basis of creation care, examine current needs for creation care in Nepal, and consider how Christian communities can respond.

The conference is organised by the Nepal Creation Care Movement Steering Committee, which was formed in 2022. For more information and to register, contact Shiva at +977 9841226317 or email richard.g.storey@gmail.com

Additional details can be found in the poster below:

Photo: Poon Hill, Histan Mandali, Nepal by Azin Javadzadeh on Unsplash

Dave Bookless has shared an excellent summary of the final conference in the LWCCN Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel campaign.

The report can be accessed below.

The Global Campaign for Creation Care and the Gospel began in November 2012 with the Jamaica Consultation. At that meeting an idea was born to bring the creation care message to the global church as quickly as possible. Ten years later, even with a global pandemic, we can say that this goal has been accomplished.

The last planned conference was held just last week in Ajloun Jordan, with almost 50 people gathering from almost all of the countries in the region. Speakers and participants included Las Newman, Global Director for Regions for Lausanne, Michael El Daba, Lausanne’s Regional Director for MENA, and Jack Sara, Secretary General for the Middle East North Africa Alliance of the WEA.

We will eventually release a summary report from the 10 year campaign. But for now we rejoice that God has allowed the dream conceived in Jamaica to be finally brought to fulfillment in that part of the world where the Gospel began – the Middle East.

There are few situations in our modern world more fraught with injustice than climate change. We are pleased to note that The Justice Conference,

Brittany Michalski, A Rocha USA’s Project Coordinator for Climate Stewards USA, is inviting us to join The Justice Conference in Denver, CO this weekend. It is a bit late to travel unless you are already in Denver, but there is a virtual option. Brittany and Marc Antoine, Tearfund’s Haiti Country Director, will be presenting on the topic “Hope and Justice in a Time of Climate Crisis”.

At this time we don’t have information as to what time events are happening, and the registration link for the conference appears to be broken.

But we’re still glad that organizations like the Justice Conference recognize that we will never have a just world for people until we find ways to heal God’s creation. If any of our readers are able to attend this conference, send us a report!

Unlike the previous two convenings, which were held online due to Covid, this event will be in person in Madison. But it will also be a very small event, limited to a maximum of 20 pastors or pastoral staff. (There is a possibility that the program may be repeated in future years). Here’s the program description:

This initiative is designed for self-identified evangelical pastors of American mid-size congregations  to provide them, in a confidential and supportive setting, with information and tools about the topics of creation care and climate change. The program is designed for pastors who find themselves isolated and unsupported on issues such as creation care and climate change.  

The program will feature Dave Bookless as our theology resource person and several top climate scientists from the University of Wisconsin. Topics will include dealing with conflict over environmental issues in the congregation and politics and policy issues. Ed Brown (Care of Creation) and Dekila Chungyalpa (Loka) will facilitate the event.

If you are a pastor as described above, or if you know a pastor (or pastors) who would benefit from a program like this, please let Ed Brown know as soon as possible. The cost of the program, including travel, will be completely covered by generous donors. There is no firm application deadline, but the program can accept no more than twenty individuals, so if you know someone who might be interested please let them or Ed Brown know as soon as possible.

A full program description is here.

The registration deadline for the Creation Care and the Gospel Conference for MENA (Middle East/North Africa region) has just passed, but you still may be able to get in if you contact the organizers NOW!

The conference will now run from 28 September to 1 October, which is one day shorter than originally planned. The field trip to visit the traditional site of Jesus’ baptism will now be an option add-on even on 2 October. The event is being held at the beautiful Ajloun Baptist Conference Center in Ajloun, Jordan.

This change will lower the cost to just US$110 for Jordanian residents up to US$400 for non-MENA residents requesting single rooms.

Organizers kindly request registrations be submitted by 31 August but give it a try anyway! They might let you in!

Full details and a link to the registration page can be found here.